About the Helmsley Center for Electrophysiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital has been leading the development of new arrhythmia technologies since 1909, when one of our physicians became the first in the United States to use an electrocardiogram. Our Electrophysiology Center and laboratory, inaugurated in 1984, was the first to be established in New York City.

Today the Helmsley Center for Electrophysiology located at The Mount Sinai Hospital, is directed by Vivek Reddy, MD, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor of Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology. The Center provides the full spectrum of therapies, including procedures that implant devices for regulating heart rhythms (such as pacemakers) to procedures that use catheters for fixing the source of the abnormal heartbeat (called ablations).

In a tireless effort to make ablations safer and more effective, the Helmsley Center for Electrophysiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital has been the first in the country to use several breakthrough technologies, including a visually guided laser balloon catheter in 2009 and the TactiCath force-sensing catheter in 2011, as well as a new generation of visually guided catheter in 2012. Dr. Reddy was the first physician in the world to use several new ablation techniques, such as the cryoballoon catheter and robotic navigation. In addition, in 2014 Dr. Reddy implanted inside a patient's heart the first, innovative, miniature-sized leadless pacemaker in the United States at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

The Helmsley Center for Electrophysiology continues its pioneering leadership in the field of electrophysiology and arrhythmia care through various research studies with the goal of developing superior technologies. In fact, The Mount Sinai Hospital is currently the lead investigators on several multinational clinical trials exploring new arrhythmia procedures, which mean our patients have access to cutting-edge treatments.

It is currently one of the most prominent Centers in the country, offering such complex treatment procedures such as state of the art ablation for atrial fibrillation using not only radiofrequency current but also laser and cryoablation. Also, the Center is nationally recognized for left atrial occlusive procedures for stroke prophylaxis and the novel experimental treatment of high blood pressure with renal artery sympathetic denervation with radiofrequency energy. It is one of the foremost Center's in the country offering epicardial mapping, as well as epicardial and endocardial ablation for ventricular tachyarrhythmias, and the use of implantable defibrillators for primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death.

A pioneer in risk stratification for sudden cardiac death, the Center was the first in the country to recommend use of implantable defibrillators in Sarcoid heart disease; the first to use a Lariat Suture Device to occlude the left atrial appendage; and the first to use Laser (Cardiofocus) for pulmonary vein isolation for ablation of atrial fibrillation.